Edgar Angeli
Edgar Angeli | |
|---|---|
| Born | 11 May 1892 |
| Died | 17 June 1945 (aged 53) |
| Allegiance |  Austria-Hungary Kingdom of Yugoslavia Independent State of Croatia |
| Branch | Navy of the Independent State of Croatia |
| Service years | 1911–1945 |
| Rank | Rear Admiral |
| Commands | Navy of the Independent State of Croatia |
| Conflicts | World War I World War II |
| Awards | Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir 3rd Class |
Edgar Angeli (11 May 1892 – 17 June 1945) was a Croatian rear admiral who served as the commander of the Navy of the Independent State of Croatia between 1943 and 1944.
Biography
[edit | edit source]Angeli was born in 1892 in Karlovac, Austria-Hungary. Angeli attended the Imperial and Royal Naval Academy of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. As a naval officer, he participated in World War I serving in the fleet based in Rijeka.[citation needed]
In 1919, he was assigned to the War Navy of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, holding the rank of lieutenant commander. He later rose to the rank of Captain while commanding a river fleet, and witnessed the capitulation of Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[1] Because of his connections with Croatian officers who supported the Ustaše and Slavko Kvaternik, he became an officer of the newly formed Navy of the Independent State of Croatia, becoming its deputy commander from 10 April 1941 – 14 April 1943. For these actions, the Yugoslav Government in exile declared him a traitor and deprived him of his former Naval rank.
In the Croatian Navy, he continued to command a river fleet and also commanded a coastal port gendarmerie. He participated in the creation of the Croatian Naval Legion, which served with the Kriegsmarine on the Black Sea and Azov Sea. He also broke the Treaty of Rome, signed by Ante Pavelić and Benito Mussolini, forbidding Croatia from building any sort of naval fleet. For his merits and war records, he was decorated with the Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir 3rd Class, on 13 June 1942 from Poglavnik Ante Pavelić.
On 17 September 1943, he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral, becoming a commander of the Croatian Navy.[2]
By 21 April 1944, he requested that he be allowed to retire his commission due to a prolonged illness. In May 1945, he was taken by the British Army to Bleiburg, the town where most of the early Yugoslavian War Crimes trials were held, mainly against Yugoslav Partisans. He was subsequently imprisoned by the Partisans and put on trial. He died at some point in 1945.[3]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Vojni poraz Kraljevine i sudbina srpskog naroda
- ^ Nigel Thomas, K. Mikulan, Darko Pavlović; Axis forces in Yugoslavia, 1941-5, Osprey Publishing, 1995. (p. 18)
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Sources
[edit | edit source]- Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- 1892 births
- 1945 deaths
- People from Karlovac
- People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
- Austro-Hungarian Navy officers
- Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I
- Royal Yugoslav Navy personnel of World War II
- Croatian admirals
- Croatian Home Guard personnel
- Executed Croatian collaborators with Nazi Germany
- Croats in Austria-Hungary
- Recipients of the Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir